Most of the country is knee deep in snow and ice of the mid-winter blues. Going out is like having a root canal, a very painful experience. You’d rather pass, thank you very much. You’re hibernating. I get it. Ok, since I live in central Florida, I don’t suppose I totally get it. But, hang with me here. This is for your own good. You can only watch reruns of NCIS a billion times before your brain turns to slush and your TV explodes. So, what are you to do? Wouldn’t you just love to usher in the springtime having had a very productive hibernation? I’m sure you would. Who wouldn’t? In order to stop and smell the roses in April, you have to hibernate wisely today. Here are some […]
Read the RestArchive | 7. Search by Author: RSS feed for this section
One Thing Marketing: The Three Bs—Buy In!
For the past couple weeks, we’ve been talking about the Three Bs of marketing: 1) Brand 2) Bio 3) Buy-in We focused on “brand” two weeks ago and “bio” last week. Today’s topic: Buy-in. It’s possible I may or may not have picked the term “buy-in” solely so it’d fit into the alliteration. 😀 But I think it works. When we buy in to something—an idea or a product—we’re giving it our support. We’re agreeing to do something. So in all of your marketing efforts—online, in print or in person—you should have a clear idea of what you’re asking the audience or the reader to do. Sometimes the buy-in will be obvious. For instance, if someone visits your Facebook author page, obviously you want them to “like” the page. But there can be […]
Read the Rest
A Whole New Year of Success, Part 4: Measure the Right Way
We’ve made some ground already in this brand new year. Hopefully, you’ve made plans and have worked that plan. Now that you’ve gained some momentum, you’ll need to periodically measure your success. Do it the right way and it can fuel your fire. Measure incorrectly and you’ll extinguish it. Here are some do’s and don’ts of measuring your success: Do measure your success daily. Seriously. Take just a few moments each day to count your successes and recognize those areas where you fell short of the finish line. That way, you’ll know where to pick up tomorrow. Don’t measure by comparing yourself to others. Susie May Warren may write a book in ten days while Terri Blackstock takes a year. Both are magnificent authors. Both are very different in how […]
Read the Rest
Learning from Fairytales: Story World Building
When I started the Royal Wedding Series, I knew I had to create a country or countries “worlds” in which my royal families lived. I’m a realistic kind of writer. I like real cities and real places. I once called the Starbucks in downtown Chattanooga to get a description. I called the University of Northern Iowa to see if scholarshipped athletes had to live in the dorms. All the sake of authenticity. Yet, I’ve created fictional towns three times in the course of seventeen novels. Reasons can vary for making up cities, or countries. Or entire universes. Genre is a key reason to invent other places. Fantasy, Sci-Fi and fairytales, books with supernatural elements, demand world building. Tolkien created a middle of the earth! So what can we not do […]
Read the Rest
